Transport manned space vehicle Soyuz TMA-17 for performance of prelaunch processing final operations and launch of long-duration Expedition ISS-22/23 crew within the International Space Station Program was delivered by rail to Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Today, at Assembly - Testing Facility for spacecraft, on site 254, RSC Energia's specialists performed unloading of the space vehicle and its installation on the assembly fixture, as well as made preparations for its electrical testing. They started works in accordance with the space vehicle prelaunch processing schedule where the launch is slated for December this year.

...and here we additional have the video from Roscosmos TV showing the arrival of the ship in Baikonour.

Robert Pearlman

NASA release

NASA TV Covers Next Space Station Crew's Journey to Orbit

NASA TV will air the events surrounding the launch and delivery of the next three residents to the International Space Station. Coverage begins with a broadcast of prelaunch activities Dec. 8, and continues through the crew's arrival to the orbiting laboratory Dec. 22.

After a two-day trip, the Soyuz will dock to the space station at 4:58 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 22, beginning the crew members' six-month stay. Kotov, Creamer and Noguchi will join Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams of NASA and Russian Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev, who have been on the complex since October.

In the assembly/test building primary (Oleg Kotov [Roscosmos, Russia], Timothy Creamer [NASA, USA], Soichi Noguchi [JAXA, Japan]) and backup (Anton Shkaplerov [Roscosmos, Russia], Douglas Wheelock [NASA, USA], Satoshi Furukawa [JAXA, Japan]) crews of the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft made a check inspection of the spacecraft in the launch configuration and got acquainted with equipment to be delivered and returned to the ground.

More photos from their spacecraft inspection and press conference at Roscosmos.

Robert Pearlman

The Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft was rolled out by train and raised into the vertical position on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on Friday, Dec. 18, 2009.

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

For more photos from the Soyuz TMA-17 rollout, see RSC Energia's photo report.

Robert Pearlman

Soyuz TMA-17 crew members TJ Creamer, Oleg Kotov and Soichi Noguchi listen to a reporter's question during a press conference held at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Saturday, Dec. 19.

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

For more photos from the crew's press conference, see NASA's Flickr album.

hoorenz

A tradition started with Soyuz TMA-16, was continued by Oleg Kotov's crew: a funny crew poster was created and presented to Roscosmos head Anatoly Perminov. The Soyuz TMA-17 poster was made in Russia by Dmitriy Shcherbinin, an employee of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. It was based on a famous Russian painting from 1898.

The tradition of creating funny crew posters will be continued for Soyuz TMA-18.

View a small movie starring the TMA-16 and 17 posters (in Russian - it is about the visit of actor Anatoly Kuznetsov from the movie "White Sun of the Desert" to Roscosmos - the movie traditionally seen by cosmonauts the day before launch and the subject of the first crew poster.)

The three Soyuz crew members are scheduled to dock with their home for the next six months at 4:58 p.m., Tuesday. They will join Expedition 22 crew members Jeff Williams, a NASA astronaut and the station commander, and Max Suraev, a Russian cosmonaut and station flight engineer, aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The station's five residents have some busy months ahead. Kotov and Suraev will conduct a planned spacewalk in January from the Pirs airlock, part of the station's Russian segment. Less than a week later, Williams and Suraev will fly the Soyuz spacecraft that brought them to the station from its current location on the end of the outpost's Zvezda service module to the new Poisk module.

In February, the crew will welcome a Progress unmanned resupply ship and space shuttle Endeavour's STS-130 mission. Endeavour and its crew will deliver the new Tranquility node and its cupola, one of the last major portions of the station to be installed.

Creamer, 50, a U.S. Army colonel from Upper Marlboro, Md., is making his first spaceflight. Assigned to NASA's Johnson Space Center in 1995 as a space shuttle vehicle integration test engineer, he supported eight shuttle missions as vehicle integration test team lead and specialized in coordinating the information technologies for the Astronaut Office. Selected as an astronaut in 1998, Creamer worked with hardware integration and robotics and was a support astronaut for Expedition 12.

Kotov, 44, a physician and Russian Air Force colonel, is making his second spaceflight and serving his second tour aboard the station. Selected as a cosmonaut in 1996, he trained as a cosmonaut researcher for a flight on the Soyuz and as a backup crew member to the Mir-26 mission. A former lead test doctor at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, he served as a flight engineer and Soyuz commander on the Expedition 15 mission in 2007. He will be a flight engineer for Expedition 22 and assume the duties of Expedition 23 commander when Williams departs in March 2010.

Noguchi, 44, an aeronautical engineer from Chigasaki, Kanagawa, Japan, is making his second spaceflight. He was selected by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), now JAXA, as an astronaut candidate in 1996 and trained at Johnson Space Center. After completing his astronaut training, he supported development and integration of the station’s Japanese Kibo experiment module. Noguchi flew on the STS-114 return-to-flight mission of Discovery in 2005. He has logged nearly 14 days in space, including more than 20 hours of spacewalks to test new procedures for shuttle inspection and repair techniques.

From inside the station, Expedition 22 commander Jeff Williams and flight engineer Maxim Suraev monitored the approach of the Russian Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft as it berthed to the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module.

After completion of leak checks, the hatches between the vehicles were opened shortly after 6:30 p.m. CST. Williams and Suraev, who arrived at the station Oct. 2 on TMA-16, welcomed the flight engineers aboard their orbital home for the next five months.

Credit: NASA TV

SPACEFACTS

I have high resolution portraits of all six cosmonauts in Sokol and the (official) crew portraits of the prime and backup crews.

NASA still doesn't have them, so here are all portraits in full size for download. Thanks to Roscosmos PAO.

Three members of the Expedition 23 crew changed parking places at the International Space Station Wednesday, and in doing so, cleared the way for the launch of space shuttle Atlantis Friday on the STS-132 mission.

With Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer of NASA and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency flanking him inside the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft, Station Commander Oleg Kotov undocked the return craft from the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module at 9:26 a.m. EDT, then flew the Soyuz over for a redocking at the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module at 9:53 a.m. The two docking ports are a little more than 80 feet apart in a straight line distance.

Inside the station during the maneuver were their colleagues, Russian Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko and NASA Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson.

The Soyuz relocation opens up the Earth-facing port of Zarya for the installation of the new Rassvet Mini-Research Module 1 next week by Atlantis' astronauts on the fifth day of the STS-132 mission. Atlantis is poised to begin its journey Friday afternoon with launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Rassvet, which means "dawn" in Russian, will provide additional storage space and a new docking port for Russian spacecraft.

Zvezda's aft end port was previously home to the ISS Progress 36 cargo ship that undocked from the station Monday morning.

Robert Pearlman

Soyuz TMA-17 returning home to Earth

ISS Expedition 23 crew members commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi will end their six-month stay on the International Space Station Tuesday, June 1. They will enter Soyuz TMA-17 and undock to return to Earth with a landing in Kazakhstan.

Upcoming NASA TV broadcasts include (all times CDT):

June 1

10 a.m. -- ISS Update commentary hour that includes a replay of the May 31 change of command ceremony aboard the station, in which Kotov handed over command of the station to Skvortsov. The ceremony will also be replayed during landing coverage.

The hatches between the International Space Station (ISS) and the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft were closed at 3:54 p.m. CDT.

Robert Pearlman

Soyuz TMA-17 undocks from the station

ISS Expedition 23 commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi undocked the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft from the International Space Station (ISS) at 7:04 p.m. CDT as the two vehicles were orbiting 215 miles above eastern Mongolia.

"I forgot something. Can we go back?" joked Creamer as the spacecraft backed away from the outpost.

Kotov will command a four minute, 21 second deorbit burn at 9:34:40 p.m., leading to a landing near Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan at about 11:24 p.m. CDT.

The trio launched on Soyuz TMA-17 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec. 21, 2009. As members of the Expedition 22 and 23 crews, they spent 161 days on the station. They supported three space shuttle missions that delivered the U.S. Tranquility node and its cupola; put the finishing touches on U.S. laboratory research facilities; and attached the Russian Rassvet Mini-Research Module-1.

Kotov has logged a total of 360 days in space on his two missions. Creamer, ending his first mission, has 163 days. Noguchi, who also flew on STS-114 in 2005, has accumulated 177 days in space.

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

The station is now occupied by Expedition 24 commander Alexander Skvortskov, who took command at 4:00 p.m. Monday, NASA flight engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Roscomos flight engineer Mikhail Kornienko, who arrived April 4.

A new trio of Expedition 24 crewmates, Doug Wheelock, Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchickhin, will launch on Soyuz TMA-19 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 3:35 p.m. CDT on June 15 (3:35 a.m. June 16 in Baikonur). They will join the crew when hatches between their Soyuz and the station are opened at 7:34 p.m. on June 17 (2:34 a.m. June 18 in Moscow).